AUSTIN — Texas Comptroller Susan Combs delivered revenue estimates to the Legislature Thursday that included a roughly $2.5 billion surplus. Combs’ report also projected Texas will continue adding jobs at a healthy pace over the next two years, though not at the same tick as the last three years. “The most likely scenario for our […]
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A compromise plan to spend $848 million on Texas highways just landed in a ditch. House members voted down a plan to split oil and gas production money between the state’s economic stabilization fund and highway spending. It needed 100 votes to pass and got 84. The rebuke of a compromise plan worked out this […]
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UPDATE: This version corrects the penultimate paragraph to show Darby wants to get some money for transportation (not education) out of the special session. Also: H/T for Darby audio to my colleague David Saleh Rauf. ORIGINAL POST: The Texas Senate is poised to act on a proposed constitutional amendment to give some $900 million annually
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Members of the Senate Finance Committee meeting in Austin Wednesday were generally supportive of a plan to direct money from oil production tax revenues to road rehab and construction. The committee did not approve the plan by Sens. Tommy Williams, R- The Woodlands, and Robert Nichols, R- Jacksonville. Members, however, generally spoke in favor of […]
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UPDATE: Fowler stopped en route to Austin to make some phone calls, and was told by Sen. Tommy Williams’ office that a deal has been reached to give oil-impacted counties some funding. Up to half of the $450 million allocated in this year’s budget to TxDOT’s projects in oil-impacted counties will be available for use
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The task assigned to Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, sounds like a impossible riddle: How do you pay for badly needed up-keep and expansion of Texas highways without raising taxes and fees or imposing more tolls? Fairy dust? After studying the problem all session, Nichols has found a more pragmatic solution that may become a topic
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The legislature refused to tap into the state’s Rainy Day fund two years ago when the state faced a $27 billion shortfall, but a proposal unanimously passed the Senate Finance Committee Thursday morning that would spend $6 billion from the fund on transportation and water projects. Some propose spending even more. Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The […]
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The Texas Democratic Party has joined several others groups in calling on Gov. Rick Perry to call a special legislative session for lawmakers to deal with school funding. Democrats blame Republican for public education budget cuts resulting in 11 Dallas schools closing and thousands of teachers laid off statewide – with more expected. The cuts […]
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Gov. Rick Perry should call Texas legislators back to the Capitol for a special session to spare more public school cuts next year now that the economic recovery is producing more revenue than expected, a teachers group said Wednesday. The state ended the 2011 budget year with a $1.1 billion surplus, Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, […]
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